Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will destroy indigenous peoples worldwide, warns Suhas Chakma.

About 89 out of the 106 notified national parks in India i.e. about 84% were established in the areas inhabited by the Scheduled Tribes and indigenous peoples across the world will suffer destruction if Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to increase global protected areas at least to 30 percent from the current 16 per cent of the world’s terrestrial area is realized.” – warned Mr Suhas Chakma, Regional Campaign Manager of the IPLP Initiative on Indigenous Peoples Affected by Protected Areas while addressing the “Symposium on Conservation, Racism and Indigenous Peoples Human Rights” organized by the University of Arizona today.

Giving further details about the remaining 17 national parks not inhabited by the STs in India, Mr Chakma stated, two national parks (South Button Island National Park and Rani Jhansi Marine National Park under Andaman and Nicobar Islands) are marine areas and do not have any human habitation; four are zoos (Van Vihar, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, Mahaveer Harina Vanasthali and Salim Ali); on four national parks (Col. Sherjung Simbalbara, Neora Valley, Singalila and Fossil) information about inhabitance of the STs could not be verified and while only in seven national parks, general category people were impacted.

The current expansion of protected areas whether Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan or Nauradehi Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh mainly impact the STs and other forest dwellers. Assam’s notification for the Barak Bhuban Wildlife Sanctuary of 19 June 2022 states that “the area is free from encroachment as per record, there are no rights and concessions of any person in the area” but indigenous Khasi people living inside the proposed sanctuary have records including Kachukhal Part-2 Khasi Punjee village being established in 1914!

“Across Asia, indigenous peoples face massive human rights violations in the protected areas. In the Ujungkulon National Park of Indonesia, indigenous peoples are denied the right to proper housing, health, education, electricity and security while indigenous leaders such Ms Heng Saphen living inside the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary of Cambodia have been convicted by a Kangaroo court for cultivating on her own land. After the Botum Sakor National Park of Cambodia was handed over to the Royal Group in 2021, its forest coverage reduced to just 18% of the park as of July 2023 because of the massive logging.” – also stated Mr Chakma

“That the STs who constitute about 8.6% of the total population of India also constitute about 84% of the communities impacted by the protected areas reflect the disproportionate targeting of indigenous peoples for saving the world’s biodiversity and ecosystem. Worse, their lifestyles and livelihood practices have been criminalized from the colonial times such as the Forest Act of 1927. On 21 February 2024, Chief Minister of Odisha ordered withdrawal of over 48,000 cases against tribal community members relating to excise (making country liquor), forest offence, and land encroachment. These 48,000 pending cases expose the extent of the criminalisation of their lifestyles and livelihood practices and if 48,000 cases are pending in one State i.e. Odisha alone, one can conjure up the number of cases pending against the STs in India.”- further stated Mr Chakma.

“If indigenous peoples win the right to stay inside the protected areas, they live under constant human rights violations such as restrictions of the freedom of movement, little or no access to development initiatives, excessive surveillance, sexual violence and criminal cases for alleged making country-liquor (excise) cases, forest offences, poaching etc. If they accept relocation, the world simply has not seen a single successful case of rehabilitation and resettlement.”- furthermore stated Mr Chakma.

The most serious emerging challenge is the increasing privatisation of the protected areas in the name of eco-tourism and sustainable eco-tourism etc. The protected areas are increasingly becoming more of tourism spots and less about protection of the species, with expensive safaris being provided as recreational opportunities to the elites of the world, often in the name of indigenous peoples. The role of the indigenous peoples in such eco-tourism spots have been reduced to indigenous peoples (especially women, girls and elderly people) being made to sit in traditional replicas of their houses dressed up with traditional dresses, ornaments, music instruments etc and at times, performing traditional music and dances until the tourists depart. More often than not, indigenous peoples are projected like animals in a zoo in many of the eco-tourism spots.

Mr Chakma called for human rights oversight mechanisms on protected areas which are treated like fortresses. These fortresses are akin to the Guantanamo Bay where human rights violations by the government or private rangers can be perpetrated by using firm-arms without any respect for the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.

ANNEX I: LIST OF NATIONAL PARKS IN INDIA & INHABITANCE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

In its report, “India’s Tiger Reserves: Tribals Get Out, Tourists Welcome”, released on the occasion  of the International Tiger Day, Rights & Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) stated that at least, 5,50,000 Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers are to be displaced by India’s much vaunted Project Tiger. These include 2,54,794 persons from 50 tiger reserves notified by 2017 and at least 290,000 persons from 6 (six) tiger reserves in the post 2021 period. The report also highlights indictment by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for non-compliance with the Forest Rights Act regarding non-displacement of the STs and other forest dwellers without consent, uncontrolled commercial, eco-tourism and linear project activities in the Tiger Reserves after displacing tribals, and in fact, more tigers are being killed by linear project activities.

“While 2,54,794 persons were identified for relocation from 50 Tiger Reserves from 1973 to 2021, at least 290,000 persons are slated to be displaced from six  tiger reserves being created from 2021 period. It means a whopping 967% increase of displacement per Tiger Reserve in the post 2021 period.” – stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Asia Campaign Manager on Indigenous Peoples Affected by Protected Areas and Other Conservation Measures, University of Arizona and co-author of the report.

About 290,0000 persons  expected to be displaced in the post 2021 period are about 4,000 people from the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu (2021); about 4,400 persons from approximately 1673 families from the Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan (2022); about 45,000 persons from the Ranipur Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh (2022);  at least 72,772 persons from the Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary under Durgavati  Tiger reserve, Madhya Pradesh (2023); about 4,000 persons from the Dholpur-Karauli Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan (2023), and about 160,000 persons from the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Rajasthan (2023).

“The notification of an area as a Tiger Reserve has become the means for displacement. No tigers were found in five Tiger Reserves namely, Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra), Satkosia Tiger Reserve (Odisha), Kamlang Tiger Reserve (Arunachal Pradesh), Kawal Tiger Reserve (Telangana) and Dampa Tiger Reserve (Mizoram) but a total of 5,670 tribal families were displaced from these five TRs!  Displacement destroys the affected communities and there is no rationale to displace tribal communities when there are no tigers for whom the displacement were carried out in the first place.”- further stated Mr Chakma.

India short circuited the free, prior and informed consent both under the Forest Rights Act and the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 by not seeking consent before designation as a Tiger Reserve. The consent is only sought regarding forcible relocation after designation of an area as a Tiger Reserve.

The report highlights forced evictions through massive human rights violations. The houses are often destroyed and indigenous peoples can no longer hunt, fish, gather food, or access to their religious, sacred and cultural sites, burial grounds and medicinal plants. The State government and authorities stop all sorts of development programs in order to force the victims to accept what is euphemistically called voluntary relocation. The victims also face gross civil and political human rights violations including extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, threats and intimidation often for collecting honey, flowers, firewood, hunting or fishing in or near the tiger reserve or for opposing or resisting evictions.

Highlighting the case of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in Assam, the report stated Assam’s Forest Department in a Report of 2014 claimed that hundreds of alleged poachers were shot dead in encounters over the years but not a single forest staffer had been killed in an encounter between 1985 and June 2014, thereby raising suspicions about the encounters. From 2014 to 2016 alone, at least 57 persons were killed – 27 in 2014, 23 in 2015 and 7 in 2016.

The report also highlighted damning revelations on non-compliance with the free, prior and informed consent and rehabilitation of the affected persons from the tiger reserves found by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) after audit in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala, and Maharashtra. The CAG found uncontrolled commercial and eco-tourism activities such as establishing petrol pumps, rest houses being run on commercial basis by the Forest Department and Tourism Departments, staff colony and other residential quarters, high tension electric lines causing deaths of substantial number of tigers in electrocution, huge number of  vehicles being allowed against ceiling imposed, resorts / hotels, road construction/ widening /up-gradation, linear projects in core areas of the Tiger Reserves despite prohibition.

Furthermore, there are ongoing commercial and linear project activities such as road projects in Rajaji TR (Uttarakhand); Limestone mining and highway projects in Mukundra Hills TR (Rajasthan); limestone mining and skywalk projects between Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and Tadoba-Andhari-Kawal Tiger Reserve(Maharashtra); road projects through Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (Andhra Pradesh); construction of underground pipeline and pump house in core area of Amrabad Tiger Reserve (Telangana); laying of OFC by Airtel in Tiger Corridor in Kagaznagar (Telangana), irrigation project in core area of Kawal Tiger Reserve (Telangana), etc.

The process of turning the Tiger Reserves into a tourism industry is all set to intensify and India enacted the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023 to exempt “establishment of zoo and safaris and eco-tourism facilities” from the Forest Conservation Act.

Highlighting successful co-existence of indigenous peoples with tigers, the report stated that in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (Karnataka) where the Soliga tribals have been allowed to co-exist with the tigers including in the core area/critical tiger habitat, the number of tigers almost doubled from 35 to 68 between 2010 and 2014, which was far higher than the national rate at which the tiger population was growing.

“In fact, more tribals are being killed by the linear projects. The CAG found that in Madhya Pradesh “out of 115 reported deaths of Tigers in the State during 2014-18, 16 were through electrocution, making it the second biggest cause of deaths after territorial fights”- also stated Mr Chakma.

Expressing concerns about the impact of displacement, the report stated, out of 5,50,000 Scheduled Tribes and other forest dwellers identified for relocation by the Tiger Projects, about 20,857 families 92,605 persons were relocated by 31.12.2021 as per the Government of India. Therefore, about 457,394 persons or 1,03,016 families are yet to be relocated. In monetary terms, if India were to relocate these 452,189 persons or 101,844 families at the current rate of Rs 15 lakh per family for rehabilitation and resettlement, it would cost Rs 15,2766 million or US$1,853 million in addition to requirement of massive land for resettlement. There are simply no lands available to properly resettle 101,844 families from the Tiger Reserves. In the meantime, their human development shall remain stunted as the State governments and authorities shall not undertake any development project to force involuntary relocation. The report called upon to promote Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (Karnataka) model by allowing Scheduled Tribes and Tigers to co-exist, suspend the remaining displacement of 1,03,016 families  and conduct fresh assessment as per the Forest Rights Act and the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 to conclude that other reasonable options of co-existence are not available.